For the wasps, that is. They've calmed down and have stopped swarming, but they're not a very happy colony. Erin was able to leave the cabin easily after a couple of hours. We can now walk calmly by the nest without worry. We can squat a few feet away and watch them busily rebuilding their nursery.I don't want to kill the poor guys with some noxious chemical or even with heat. I'm currently trying to come up with a safe way of relocating the nest.
Original Bug Shirt, gloves, shovel, bucket, garbage bag, smoking branches? Suggestions welcome!
Hi Miranda... the FIL has come up with a good way to do non-chemical wasp relocation. They settle down at night (dark). If you were to head out with Chuck, you could (gloved) cover the nest with a garbage bag and then push/gather the bag under a nest (you may be able to do this with a string - moving quickly to cinch it up). Or you cover it with a bucket and slide a sheet of firm cardboard under and then flip it over and secure the cardboard around the bucket. You'll likely set them to buzzing, but if you are quick, you should be able to do this just fine. You'll want to move the nest while it's still dark... and you'll want to move it some distance away.
ReplyDeleteYou can always freeze the nest at this point if you do need to give them a humane, non-toxic ending.
Good luck!!!
Thanks, Rebecca, that's along the lines of what I was thinking; glad to hear of someone who has had success with this approach.
ReplyDeleteOH, you are so much braver than I!!!!!
ReplyDelete>>Gosh Miranda, its like a suspense novel... what will happen day 3 of the wasps???? A great distraction for me though... my son deploys to Baghdad and I'm trying to move with my college buddies to Nelson!!
ReplyDeleteIt's the Stealth approach to wasp control. G has lots of hilarious stories of things his dad has done - the wasp thing, though, worked. It just has to be dark and whatever you do has to be fast.
ReplyDelete